Love notes from last weekend

Our daughter arrived on Thursday night, and on Friday we all worked from home during the day. One thing about these millennials and Gen Z remote workers, they're not goofing off. If anything the lack of immediate oversight has made them work even harder, and I wonder if there isn't something about the collegiality of office relationships, the familiarity born of casual across the desk chatter, that takes the edge of the intensity of work, helps us approach it with a greater sense of ease. Anyway, my girl worked hard all day, and then she closed her laptop and proposed we all go out to dinner at Community Food and Juice. Though it's our usual girls night out place, this time, we convinced her dad to join us. Over dinner we had one of those rollicking exchanges in which our girl shared mortifying events from her growing up years, like our well-intentioned convos about the birds and the bees when she was a teen, which made her want to shrink into the floor. It was hysterically funny in the retelling, and we laughed till our sides ached about the time I took her to buy condoms before college and stood in front of the public drugstore display encouraging her to choose the brand she wanted. She grabbed one hurriedly and croaked out, "Okay, let's go!" But it wasn't all cringy. "I always knew you were a safe space," she told us, "and that if I ever got in trouble, I wouldn't have to be afraid to come to you." I'll take those flowers.

The following day, Saturday, was the bridal shower of one of our girl's best friends since preschool, the reason she had come to town. Some of the moms from that class were also there, and it was wonderful to catch up with them in the back yard of a restaurant in gentrified Williamsburg. The trendy hipster vibe of the neighborhood was near overwhelming. Imagine having to project such cool every time you step out your door. Then again, some of the kids I saw roaming those streets come by it naturally. Inside the venue, rented for the day for the bridal shower, we had the best time. Alyssa and Jasper, bride and groom, are so beautifully suited, two of the kindest humans on this earth. Five of The Six were in attendance, that's them recreating one of their old poses above. The sixth member of our daughter's longtime friend group couldn't make it as she had just started grad school in social work at Smith College in Massachusetts. Come to think of it, the bride to be, her mom, and most of the moms present on Saturday are social workers, no surprise given the progressive school with its active social justice curriculum that we all have in common.

Our girl left early Sunday morning, and in the afternoon, my husband's niece came to visit with her newborn son Ethan, just five weeks old. My man had serious baby fever holding that baby. His magic shoulder still works. As soon as Ethan lay his head there he settled right down and went straight to sleep. My man, who habitually scowls at my camera, on this day let me take as many photos of him with the baby as I wanted, his eyes soft with the memory of his own kids asleep on his shoulder, and the hope that we won't have to wait too much longer to hold the babies of our own kids. Speaking of that hope, here is a photo someone posted that was taken at camp alumni weekend. That's my son and his love at the center, a tender moment captured by pure serendipity.

In related news, I think I've found something to wear to their wedding, a blue gray chiffon pantsuit thing with a blouse with an embroidered placket, and a soft flowing jacket with three-quarter sleeves that end in embroidered cuffs. It isn't awful, except I might swap out the pants for my dressy black ones, as the whole thing looked just a bit dowdy with all three pieces matching. Maybe I'll find something I like more, but if I don't, at least I now have a solid option. Continuing the theme of love, here’s another picture, just because. I snapped it outside the bridal shower venue and sent it to my husband.

We were supposed to have another very social weekend, with my cousin and her family arriving from Virginia tomorrow. It would have been our third weekend in a row hosting house guests, but my nephew (same one in the last post) tested positive for Covid on Tuesday, so they won't be driving north after all. Since we will also have house guests next weekend—another cousin and his twelve year old son from Jamaica, who are passing through on the way to Spain where the son will play in an international youth soccer tournament (he is apparently very gifted on the field)—the man and I plan to keep ourselves quiet this weekend.

But first, I have choir rehearsal tonight. While our usual choir is on hiatus, one friend and I joined another choir, this one very close to home, we meet in the building across the courtyard in fact. But oh my, this choir is much more advanced than my old one in terms of how fast the conductor moves, and how musically experienced and of exquisite voice the other choir members are. I just squeaked in, really. After my audition last week, the conductor told me in his very French accent, "You have a good voice but you don't know what to do with it, but I want to give you your chance." It's a good thing my ego is not in any way caught up in my musical ability, thin as it is. We will have just three practices in which to master ten rather complex songs, including one in Hungarian and one in Ukrainian, before putting on a community concert on June 26. Tonight is our second practice, and I hope I can make adequate progress, because so far I’m straight up faking it. It might be the responsible thing to step away, but I already know I probably won’t.